In February, Verizon announced a partnership with DVD/Blu-Ray rental kiosk company Redbox to create a new streaming video service that, in theory, would rival the current king of streaming media, Netflix. Now that partnership has taken the next step as testing has begun on the service.

Fast Company reports that Verizon and Redbox are currently testing the service internally. It's now in an alpha state and will go into beta testing next, with an official launch later in 2012. The service also has an official, if somewhat dull, name: Redbox Instant by Verizon.

That's pretty much all the details we have on the streaming service. Redbox and Verizon have yet to say which content partners it will have or what the subscription costs will be like. There's also no word on how, or even if, the service will tie into Redbox's highly successful business plan of offering thousands of kiosks that let people rent physical DVD or Blu-Ray disks or games.

The two companies have launched a teaser website for Redbox Instant, but at the moment there's just a logo and a place to type in an email address to stay informed with the latest developments. With Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu and others already online, it's going to take a lot of effort to make Redbox Instant a success.